March is Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the achievements of women who helped shape history. One such story is of Saline resident Ann Pellegreno, who in 1967 completed the around-the-world flight route attempted by famed aviator Amelia Earhart three decades earlier, finishing a journey that had ended in mystery in 1937.
Pellegreno, who lived in Saline and worked in the Ann Arbor area, flew more than 28,000 miles around the globe in a vintage Lockheed 10 Electra, the same model aircraft Earhart had used. The trip followed Earhart’s path as closely as possible and began on the 30th anniversary of Earhart’s ill-fated flight.
“We had to equip a land plane. With a 1000-mile range to fly over the Pacific, which is a long, long way,” Pellegreno explained at a presentation in 2022 at the Tippie National Education Center. “We planned very, very carefully for this flight.”…